Chris Matthews does not hold back in his criticisms of most politicians — especially Republicans — but his recent screed about girth of Governor of New Jersey is not sitting well with his cable brethren across the street.

Matthews continued the Chris Christie fat jokes last week, both on his show and during a “The Q&A Cafe with Carol Joynt,” which was covered by FishbowlDC’s Betsy Rothstein.

Fox News’ Neil Cavuto stood up for Christie on his show Monday, saying Matthews’ comments are racist:

Judging our leaders not by the qualities that matter, but the nonsense like this that does not — where greatness is defined not by who you are but how you look. You know what that is? That is racism – with a scale.”

This afternoon, Megyn Kelly talked about it with Fox News analyst and former overweight Governor Mike Huckabee who added:

I’d rather be in Governor Christie’s shoes — an effective governor doing a good job, proving that solid, conservative governing principles really do work even in a state like New Jersey than I can a person whose talk show probably gets about as many viewers as Governor Christie will shake hands with on any given day in New Jersey.

For his part, for now, Matthews isn’t talking. Through an MSNBC spokesperson TVNewser got a “no comment.”